Invest in Alabama's educators

Alabama has a sorry record of investing in public education, including in teachers, and that failure shows up in students’ low achievement scores.

Act Aspire scores released last week for third to seventh graders showed no grade had a reading proficiency greater than 44 percent, and test results for math weren’t much better, with only 27 percent of eighth-graders rated as proficient.

Stagnant teacher salaries aren’t the only cause for those dismal scores, but better pay is part of any solution to underachieving schools.

Over the last seven years, teachers received only one raise of two percent in 2013, a pittance eaten up by inflation and a bigger bite from their paychecks for retirement costs.

It’s gratifying to see Alabama State Superintendent Tommy Bice come out into the ring with a plan to fight for higher teacher salaries over the next three years.

Over the following two years, the goal is to backfill salaries to make up for a 9.75 increase in inflation since 2008.

Not convinced teachers deserve a substantial salary hike? The starting salary for an Alabama teacher with a bachelors degree is $36,867 a year. Consider that the federal poverty level for a family of four in 2015 is $24,250.

Sure, almost everyone in the workforce starts out at a low pay grade.

And teachers with higher degrees earn more.

But salary caps mean no matter how many years a teacher is in the classroom or how excellent a job he or she does, pay remains modest. Holders of bachelor’s degrees can earn only $46,917, of master’s degrees only $53,792. A teacher with a doctorate tops out at $62,040.

While those salaries are respectable, they’re no match for what can be earned by talented individuals in the private sector. Science and tech educators in particular are compensated at much lower levels than their peers with careers in industry.

Because of the low wages, fewer young people are entering the teaching field.

The number of education majors has dropped 45.5 percent since 2008, Bice said. The total number of teachers has fallen from 49,364 in 2008 to 46,480 in 2015. Some schools can’t find enough teachers.

Bice’s plan also includes requests for better funding for supplies, technology, textbooks and transportation and to reduce class sizes.

With the support of many Alabama State School Board members, he’s aiming for the fences, and deserves praise for the bold proposals.

The monumental roadblock ahead is the GOP-led state Legislature, which must approve any spending increases.

Its agenda over the last few years has been to rob public schools of dollars through questionable tax-credit and scholarship programs that pay for students to attend private schools. Even if the public school in question in not considered to be failing.

Advocates for quality public schools in the Legislature and elsewhere should stand with Bice. His plan can help turn the tide on hiring and keeping good teachers and paying for other critical needs.